Bad language and more back story! We'll be back to our regular programming soon I promise!

Bickslow sat back heavily, wearied from recounting his story. Dredging up old, painful, memories surrounding his once dear friend was exhausting. It must have been obvious to everyone, not just Levy, because it wasn't a minute later before Lily was handing him a steaming mug of tea, dropping a plate that was piled high with sandwiches on the coffee table in the middle of the room with a look that said 'eat'.

"Once I got here, and wormed my way in with Freed using my charm and good looks" he paused as Levy snorted, winking down at her. "Worked on you, amica. Anyway, we've been trying to learn every possible cause for the last six years. Or, sixteen I guess, depending on how you look at it."

"Fuck, ya really can't help but crack a joke, can yer?"

"Joke! Joke!" Came the chorus of tiny voices as Muu wriggled his way free of Levy's embrace, the tiny totems hovering around Gajeel's head, who looked more than a little unnerved by their attention.

"All part of my charm, rusty! Anyway, we narrowed down the options and then Vander, my brother, did some digging through the Steel Council archives."

"Pardon the interruption, Bickslow, but what is a Steel Council?" Lily enquired, politely brushing a few crumbs from his whiskers.

"The Steel Council is a ruling body of seven elected officials, appointed by vote of the citizens of Bosco every five years. Their job is to help govern the country, write policy and so forth, although the King must personally agree to anything they set forth. He alone holds power of the Knights of Immaculate Light and their various departments. Vander is a Bloodhunter, right Bicks?" Levy paused in her explanation, waiting for his answer.

"Yeah. Good memory, amica. He's also a shadowquip and cheeky fucker."

"Bloodhunters, to answer the question you're about to ask Lily, are basically the equivalent of what it would be like if rune knights were assassin's and damn good ones."

"Tch, they're not exactly good at anythin', le's be real". Gajeel added, grabbing another sandwich from the pile. He didn't want to be rude, but he was hungry and Lily made the best damn sandwiches going around. Although, given that they'd hardly made a dent in the mound of food, Gajeel figured his friend had probably accounted for the slightly ridiculous metabolism of a dragon slayer.

"Like I was saying before you all got a free lesson in politics, Van did some digging. And to be totally honest, what he found scares the shit outta me. So much so that I asked both him and Cristoff to come."

"Bicks?" Levy's voice was soft, her hand coming up to gently rest on his knee as she gazed up at him with doe-like eyes.

"Do you know why Seith and Shadow mages never bond?"

It was Gajeel who answered him, swallowing hard as the implications were driving home. "Metalicana told me dark magics like that need a 'light' ta ground 'em. Else they just go crazier than a bag o' cats"

"He wasn't wrong". Levy piped up, eyes closed as she drew in a shuddering breath. "Most die, those that don't are swiftly eliminated, they're incredibly dangerous simply because that kind of power rips all rationale from the mind. There's only one recorded case of a couple surviving the process..." She trailed off.

"Am I missin' somethin'? Ya look like yer seen a ghost."

"Did Metalicana never tell you the story of Al-Ana and Valefar?" Bickslow was a little shocked, it was one of few legends he remembered by heart

"Nah, he was a shitty father. Wasn't one fer a history lesson. Should I know it?"

"I'm surprised he didn't tell you" Levy rose, moving to sit next to Bickslow, pressing tight against him. "Valefar was the original shadow mage, all shadow magics can be traced back to him in some way or another. Al-Ana was his mate, the first recorded female Seith. I'm sure there were others before her, but history does like to only record the really interesting stories, so they were probably all very normal..."

"They fell in love, and Al-Ana bound their souls together." Bickslow interrupted her rambling, knowing they'd be here for hours if she kept going off on tangents like that. It wasn't a story he particularly cared for, and so he wanted to give the briefest version possible. "And, bizarrely, not only did they survive, they also didn't go completely nutso. Until one day, during some battle - no, it doesn't matter which one Bluebell, shush - Valefar was injured and died in Al-Ana's arms."

"So that's what sent her loopy?"

"Nope! If your mate dies, you can usually keep on going if you've got kids, or something important left to do. But, depending on the willingness of their mate, the Seith can bind their soul to something and keep them together. Kind of like how the babies are bound to me. Here's the problem - Valefar was not willing. He'd done his thing, fathered a bunch of little shadow mages, and died a warriors death."

Levy sat forward, eyes shining with excitement at the chance to share knowledge. "But, Al-Ana couldn't live without him. She was a stronger wizard, had a more dominant magic, so she made his soul stay, and in an act of love she forced him to bind to her very soul, so they would always be together. Which was a colossally stupid thing to do."

"Why was it stupid? Dragon slayers have two souls, I'm sure they're not the only ones. Why wouldn't this have worked in a similar fashion?" Pantherlily asked, genuinely curious as to how the entire process worked.

"I mean, you're not wrong, kitty. But you're also not right. Slayers like metal face there, they don't have a second soul, per se. What they have is a sliver of a dragon soul embedded in their own, very human, soul. And that's where our damsel made her fatal mistake, she tried to tie two entire human souls together."

"See, soul mating works by knitting a part of the soul - so Bicks has a part of mine, and I have a piece of his." Levy explained, seeing the confusion on the faces of both Gajeel and Lily.

"Right. The body is only designed to carry one soul, any more and it start literally ripping apart at the seams. Obviously, the mind is the first to go, and that's exactly what happened with Al-Ana. She went crazier than Zeref on a bad day. The extra magic ripped open all four of her origins, she started summoning all kinds of hellish creatures from the void, because she didn't know how to control it, and her body started to literally disintegrate. They brought in healers, all kinds of wizards. Nothing worked."

"Until they brought a holy mage, and a Seith!" Levy was practically bouncing now, educating someone on history was definitely one of her favourite things. "Which, if your theory is right Bicks, is why she's hunting down all the Seith! Oh, you're a genius for sending for Cristoff! A shadowquip to deal with whatever she summons, holy magic to cleanse the darkness, and a Seith to seperate them!"

"Or just destroy them. They're probably too corrupted to help pass on." Bickslow shuddered at the thought of what state those souls would possibly be in.

"Oi, I gotta bunch o' questions right now, like, when ya said a body can only take one soul, how's that work with kids an' that?"

Gajeel was confused when Levy's eyes filled with tears, before she took off down the hall, slamming the bedroom door behind her, and he had the good sense to cower under the glare Bickslow sent his way before he too was gone, disappeared from view.

"Jerk! Jerk!" The babies fed of Bickslow's anger, diving down hard to bounce off the thick skull of one very confused dragon slayer.

"Gajeel Redfox, how dare you" Lily hissed, shifting into his battle form. "I know you aren't so wild as to have forgotten some level of manners. That was insensitive, even for you. That girl, who has found it in her heart to forgive you, and welcome you back into her life, into her very home, faces the possibility of a barren life because of what you did to her!" Lily roared at his friend, who's heart plummeted in his chest, all the colour draining from his face.

Bickslow had to smile internally as he heard Lily rushing to Levy's defence, his arms full of the bluenette who was sobbing so hard his own chest hurt from the sound of her pain.

"Oh, amica mea. You've been so strong, so brave. It's alright, let it out honey. Ego tenere vobis, ego sum nolite dimittere te." Pressing kisses into her hair, Bickslow sat quietly, holding her while her cries slowly died down.

"Thank you."

Leaning down to press his lips against hers softly, Bickslow smiled. Levy was in for a surprise when his brothers arrived.

Look, I had planned to work on Hit or Miss but I'm sure you guy have questions after the last chapter, so hopefully this answers some of them!

• Dragonfly - I fought against the Pradesh boys for so long, but Vander and his mischief just speaks to me. Plus, I'm entirely too lazy to create this many OC's so I'm taking advantage of Desna's incredible work. Why wouldn't you with this many yummy men to work with?!

We'll be free of the Vas dramaaaaa shortly, so please - leave a review and let me know what ridiculous adventures you want our favourite bluenette couple to have next!

Translations -

Amica / amica mea = love / my love

Ego tenere vobis, ego sum nolite dimittere te = I've got hold of you, I'm not letting go